2. Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU

The incidence and prevalence of age-related neurodegenerative dementias have been increasing. There is no curative therapy and conventional drug treatment can cause problems for patients. Medicinal plants traditionally used for problems associated with ageing are emerging as a therapeutic resource. The main aim is to give a proposal for use and future research based on scientific knowledge and tradition. A literature search was conducted in several searchable databases. The keywords used were related to neurodegenerative dementias, ageing and medicinal plants. Boolean operators and filters were used to focus the search. As a result, there is current clinical and preclinical scientific information on 49 species used in traditional medicine for ageing-related problems, including neurodegenerative dementias. There are preclinical and clinical scientific evidences on their properties against protein aggregates in the central nervous system and their effects on neuroinflammation, apoptosis dysregulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, gabaergic, glutamatergic and dopaminergic systems alterations, monoamine oxidase alterations, serotonin depletion and oestrogenic protection. In conclusion, the potential therapeutic effect of the different medicinal plants depends on the type of neurodegenerative dementia and its stage of development, but more clinical and preclinical research is needed to find better, safer and more effective treatments.

Vitiligo is a chronic disease of unknown etiology that causes progressive cutaneous depigmentation. Current pharmacological treatments have limited success and present significant risks. Many efforts have been made in recent years to explore new anti-vitiligo therapeutic strategies, including herbal-based therapies. The objective of the present review is to provide an updated overview on the most frequently used medicinal plants in the treatment of vitiligo. A bibliographical search was carried out in scientific databases Pubmed, Scifinder, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Medline up to October 2021 using the descriptors vitiligo, herbal, medicinal plants, and alternative therapies. In our search, the highest number of published studies comprise plants commonly used in traditional herbal medicine, highlighting the usefulness of ethnopharmacology in the discovery of new therapeutic agents. The review outlines current understanding and provides an insight into the role of psoralens and khellin (photosensitizing agents obtained from plants such as Cullen corylifolium or Ammi visnaga). The paper also describes other traditional herbs such as Ginkgo biloba, Phlebodium aureum, Piper nigrum, Picrorhiza kurroa, and Baccharoides anthelmintica that can likewise act as potential therapeutical agents. Based on our findings, photosensitizing agents in combination with phototherapy, the association of oral Phebodium aureum with phototherapies as well as oral G. biloba in monotherapy showed greater scientific evidence as therapeutic options. The research results emphasize that further investigation in this area is merited. More long-term follow up clinical trials and higher quality randomized trials are needed.